~ Flu news, Information, Prepardness

Monthly Archives: October 2009

Recombinomics Commentary 22:43
October 29, 2009
New York Gov. David Paterson has declared a state of emergency because of the rise in swine flu cases.

The executive order means that far more health care professionals – including dentists – will be permitted to administer vaccines with only brief training. The order is needed to suspend provisions of state law.

New York officials said the number of vaccine doses is also being increased. The federal government is ramping up availability of the vaccine, allowing the state to order twice as many doses as a week ago, a trend that’s expected to continue.

The above comments describe the declaration of a state of emergency in New York, which follows President Barack Obama’s declaration for the entire country. Although these announcements are said to be anticipatory and an attempt to streamline treatment, evidence is mounting that these steps are in response to a rapidly accelerating spread of H1N1, leading to school closings, hospitalizations, and deaths, which are straining the health care system.

Nationally, the declaration is designed to reduce red tape associated with treatment and to increase drugs under regulatory review, such as Premavir, which is currently in clinical trials as an IV treatment for influenza. However, like Tamiflu, H274Y seriously reduces the effectiveness of the drug, increasing concerns that widespread H274Y will seriously impact antiviral treatment, leading to more hospitalizations and deaths.

In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned what I thought were the root causes of the H1N1v vaccine shortage/delay situation.

So as I always try to do, I reached out to an expert to get his opinion and bounce theories off of him. In this case, the expert is one of the top scientists in the field of vaccine research: Dr. Greg Poland of the Mayo Clinic.

I have been seeking Dr. Poland’s counsel for several years, and he has always proven himself to be receptive, affable, and eager to contribute. He is, in short, a great guy, though I have never met him. I feel as though I have, and one day I shall.

Anyway, Dr. Poland concurred with my belief that the two major factors that have contributed to the delays are a low-yield, difficult-to-grow virus; plus an “overly optimistic” Federal government spin on the vaccine situation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday.

The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said.

But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth.

Experts have for years pointed to the potential problem of Internet access during a severe pandemic, which would be a unique kind of emergency. It would be global, affecting many areas at once, and would last for weeks or months, unlike a disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake.

H1N1swine flu has been declared a pandemic but is considered a moderate one. Health experts say a worse one — or a worsening of this one — could result in 40 percent absentee rates at work and school at any given time and closed offices, transportation links and other gathering places.

Millions of Americans already have been infected with swine flu. Forty-six states have widespread flu, and the president has declared a national emergency.

But only recently have U.S. health officials discovered why manufacturers can’t deliver as much swine flue vaccine as expected.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say for months, the companies didn’t realize how far short their vaccine “yields” were falling. That’s because they didn’t have the chemicals — called reagents — that would have told them how much active ingredient they had in their vaccine production vats.

Almost one in two Greeks say they will not get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, despite the government’s plans to inoculate the entire population against the potentially fatal virus.

According to a survey conducted by the University of Athens and the Opinion polling company, 33.3 percent of some 3,000 households questioned said they would «definitely not» be getting the jab, while 14.3 percent said they would «probably not» got to the special inoculation centers being set up around the country.

One in five of those questioned said that there is «no chance» of them being infected by the virus, which has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide this year, in the next six months. One in three said that there is only «a small chance» that they will contract swine flu.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has declared 2009 H1N1swine flu a national emergency, the White House said on Saturday.

The declaration will make it easier for U.S. medical facilities to handle a surge in flu patients by allowing the waiver of some requirements of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health insurance programs as needed, the White House said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that swine flu has become widespread in 46 of the 50 U.S. states, a level comparable to the peak of ordinary flu seasons but far earlier and with more waves of infection expected.

United States
• CA: Frustration looms as H1N1 vaccines run out (Link)
• MA: Dramatic increase in H1N1 seen (Link)
• MI: Health Experts Surprised By School Closings (Link)
• NY: Hand sanitizer in short supply as swine flu hits (Link)
• TX: Mass swine flu vaccinations in the works in Dallas County (Link)
• TX: That flu shot you meant to get? It could be too late (Link)
• WI: Substitute teacher shortage (Link)

Two doses of the swine flu vaccine should be used despite British health officials deciding to give one dose in most cases, according to advice from drug regulators.

Pandemrix, the swine flu vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline, is already being used in Britain with health and social care workers and critically ill patients in hospital having started to receive it this week.

From next week deliveries will be arriving in GP surgeries so they can begin to offer the vaccine to pregnant women and people with long-term conditions.

Government officials have advised that one dose of the vaccine is sufficient in people over the age of 10 and any children under that age who have long-term conditions should receive two doses.

Research trials have suggested that the majority of people have sufficient immunity against swine flu after one dose.

However, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use said the evidence is not strong enough to recommend one dose for general use.

H1N1 slow to reproduce in eggs, a key part of antiquated vaccine process

updated 5:50 p.m. ET, Wed., Oct . 21, 2009

SWIFTWATER, Pa. – The federal government originally promised 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine by now. Only 13 million have come through.

As nervous Americans clamor for the vaccine, production is running several weeks behind schedule, and health officials blame the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to crank it out along with the ordinary flu vaccine, and a slow and antiquated process that relies on millions of chicken eggs.

There have been other bottlenecks, too: Factories that put the precious liquid into syringes have become backed up. And the government itself ran into a delay in developing the tests required to assess each batch before it is cleared for use.

CBS News Exclusive: Study Of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared

By Sharyl Attkisson

CBS) If you’ve been diagnosed “probable” or “presumed” 2009 H1N1 or “swine flu” in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.

In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That’s according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.

The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Britain’s National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu, you’re immune from future outbreaks of the same virus. Those who think they’ve had H1N1 flu — but haven’t — might mistakenly presume they’re immune. As a result, they might skip taking a vaccine that could help them, and expose themselves to others with H1N1 flu under the mistaken belief they won’t catch it. Parents might not keep sick children home from school, mistakenly believing they’ve already had H1N1 flu.

Pflugerville teen was among about one-third of children who die of swine flu despite no underlying medical conditions, CDC says.

Fourteen-year-old Jacob Moya was busing tables at the Texas Bible Institute in Columbus on July 8 when he felt run down and called his dad in Pflugerville. He resisted his father’s offer to get him, saying he would tough it out, said his father, Henry Moya. Jacob died a month later from the H1N1 virus.

When health authorities confirmed Jacob’s death from the virus – more commonly called swine flu – they said that he had developed a staph infection during the course of his illness but that it was unknown whether he had significant underlying medical conditions. Henry Moya said his son had no underlying health problems when he contracted swine flu.

About a third of the children who have died from the H1N1 virus had no underlying health conditions, Llelwyn Grant, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an e-mail Monday. Among hospitalized adults, recent CDC data show that more than 45 percent had no underlying health problems that would put them at an increased risk for complications from swine flu, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a briefing with reporters last week.